US lawmakers arrive in Cuba to gauge changes

HAVANA 
A delegation of American lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, arrived in Cuba Monday to gauge the island’s economic changes and to stress the importance of freeing a jailed American whose detention has chilled relations between the two countries.

The trip, led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was the first to the Communist-run island by high-level U.S. politicians since President Barack Obama’s re-election in November.

It comes a year after another group of legislators led by Leahy came to Cuba and met with President Raul Castro. Last year’s delegation also visited Alan Gross, an American jailed since 2009 for illegally distributing communications equipment on the island while on a U.S.-funded democracy-building program.

Leahy said the aim of the trip is to work toward better relations between the two countries and that both sides would have to give ground. He said many Americans agree U.S. policy in place for decades has become anachronistic.

“There is a growing sense by many in the U.S. who do not have a Cold War attitude that they would like to see a change,” he said. The United States has maintained an economic embargo on the island for 51 years, since shortly after Fidel Castro came to power.

McGovern said the lawmakers would “like to see relations improve,” adding that he hoped to see the day when all U.S. citizens could travel to Cuba freely. Washington bars American tourism to the island, though the number of U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba on licensed cultural, religious or educational exchanges has soared under new guidelines enacted by the Obama administration.

The lawmakers also hope to get a firsthand look at economic changes on the island instituted by Castro in recent years, including the legalization of limited private enterprise, the creation of a real estate market and the elimination of travel restrictions for most islanders.

The group arrived Monday and is scheduled to depart early Wednesday. They declined to make details of their agenda public, including whether they would meet with Castro or Gross.

Cuba has said it is willing to consider releasing the 63-year-old, but in return wants Washington to negotiate the fate of five Cuban intelligence agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States.